How to read Shakespeare

You can do it, but it takes some grit--some effort.

The first time I was made to read Shakespeare I was in 9th grade: The Twelfth Night. It literally made me cry, because I felt like I could not understand it. I failed a couple quizzes.

Five years later, I tried again, and by then, I could read it, but it wasn’t enjoyable. Three years later, teaching Hamlet for the first time, I started to love it.

Let’s try an example. In King Lear, the younger brother, Edmund, feels that it’s unfair that he is called “illegitimate,” as if he is less than his brother Edgar. His soliloquy is one of the best—here’s part of it:

Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me?
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines
Lag of a brother? Why bastard? Wherefore base?
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape as true
As honest madam’s issue? Why brand they us
With base? With baseness? bastardy? Base, base?

The first problem is the old words. Some of these, you just have to know. “Thou” means “You,” and “art” means “are,” and “thy” means “your.” The word “wherefore” appears everywhere in Shakespeare, and it means something like “the reason for,” or simply “why.”

Trying to “translate” is half the problem. We might make this soliloquy look like this:

You, nature, are my goddess. To your law
My services are bound. Why should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The legalism of nations to deprive me?
Simply because I am some twelve or fourteen months
Younger than a brother? Why [call me] bastard? Why base?
Even though I’m just as tall and strong,
Just as intelligent, and handsome, as real
As any woman’s child? Why do they call us
Base? Why less-than? Why bastard? Base, low?

And that probably helps you understand it. That’s almost “translating” from Shakespeare’s modern English to our own. But that’s not the whole game. The next thing is to focus on the meaning of phrases, images, analogies. Good editions of Shakespeare will help with abundant notes. Eventually, you might be able to read the argument of Edmund, like this:

I believe in Nature. That’s the law
As far as I’m concerned. Why should I
Let manmade laws disqualify me?
Just because I’m a year or so
Younger than my brother? For that, rule me out?
Even though I’m his equal in size,
Just as smart, as handsome, as physically real
As any child born to woman. Why do they classify us
Low? Why disinherit us? Why keep us outside?

When you really understand what is being said—that brings Shakespeare to life. Here’s the striking end of that speech by Edmund (whose brother is named Edgar). Can you make out what it means? Children born to married parents are called “legitimate,” and children born outside marriage, like Edmund, are called “illegitimate,” and weren’t eligible to inherit their father’s wealth:

Well, then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:
Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
As to the legitimate: fine word—'legitimate'!
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top the legitimate. I grow, I prosper.
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

The older you get, the better Shakespeare gets. Trust the plan! This is your inheritance!